Read on Twitter
1/4
Nov. 1958: Eugene Parker predicts the #solarwind
E. Parker, a young astrophysicist at @UChicago, was puzzled by the coronal heating problem.
Why didn't the multi-million degree solar atmosphere fly right off the #Sun?
The answer, he found, is that it wouldn't.
#Space
Nov. 1958: Eugene Parker predicts the #solarwind
E. Parker, a young astrophysicist at @UChicago, was puzzled by the coronal heating problem.
Why didn't the multi-million degree solar atmosphere fly right off the #Sun?
The answer, he found, is that it wouldn't.
#Space
2/4
According to Parker's paper (1958), the hot solar atmosphere expands continuously outward from the #Sun, forming a #solarwind that blows up the heliospheric "bubble" hypothesized by Leverett Davis, Jr. in 1955.
But it would also drag the #Sun's magnetic field along with it.
According to Parker's paper (1958), the hot solar atmosphere expands continuously outward from the #Sun, forming a #solarwind that blows up the heliospheric "bubble" hypothesized by Leverett Davis, Jr. in 1955.
But it would also drag the #Sun's magnetic field along with it.
3/4
Given the #Sun's continuous rotation as the #solarwind travels straight outwards, the magnetic field lines would bend into a twisting, ballerina-skirt-like shape that came to be known as the Parker spiral.
However, Parker’s ideas were purely theoretical.
#Space
#SpaceHour
Given the #Sun's continuous rotation as the #solarwind travels straight outwards, the magnetic field lines would bend into a twisting, ballerina-skirt-like shape that came to be known as the Parker spiral.
However, Parker’s ideas were purely theoretical.
#Space
#SpaceHour
4/4
No one had ever directly measured the solar wind, yet.
Animation: Starting with a #CME captured by NASA's #SDO, this animation zooms out to show an animated #solarwind.
Credit: #NASA’s Goddard #Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio
No one had ever directly measured the solar wind, yet.
Animation: Starting with a #CME captured by NASA's #SDO, this animation zooms out to show an animated #solarwind.
Credit: #NASA’s Goddard #Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio
